Over The Rainbow And Back

August 11, 1985|By Serrin E. Anderson, Special to the News/Sun Sentinel

GRAND CANYON, ARIZ. — The evening I climbed out of the Grand Canyon there was a double rainbow rising from the bottom of the Inner Gorge. I had been there -- at the end of the rainbow.

To get there, I was told, I needed to build up red corpuscles in my blood to meet the demands of high altitudes and a strenuous climb. Two weeks before leaving the sea level flatlands of South Florida I began consuming large portions of liver, steak, prime ribs and spinach.

My Grand Canyon ``coach`` was Margaret Davis Aiken, a Fort Lauderdale portrait artist who has hiked the canyon many times to paint mammoth acrylic portraits of the ancient rock found within the 280-mile crack in the earth`s surface cut by the Colorado River

Her son Bruce Aiken and his family live at the bottom of the canyon, operating the pump house that directs water from Roaring Springs through 4,000 feet of pipeline to the rim. Margaret needed a companion to drive west with her. She asked me and proposed a hike in the canyon as reward for five to six days on the road.

Because of my contact with the Aikens I would be able to spend four days hiking the canyon covering 35 miles. My itinerary would begin with a 7.3 mile hike from the South Kaibab Trailhead at Yaki Point on the rim, elevation 7,260 feet, to Phantom Ranch at 2,570 feet. Here there would be food, a bunk, water and showers. The second day I would hike nine miles north through the Inner Gorge to the Aiken home a mile below Roaring Springs, at 4,650 feet, return to Phantom Ranch the third day and hike 10.5 miles to the South Rim via Bright Angel trail the last day.

It would be a trip through time, spanning the Paleozoic and Precambrian ages -- a look at the history not of man, but of the Earth`s formation.

Across the route ponderosa pine, pinon and juniper trees grew at the South Rim where temperatures were in the 30s in late April; cottonwoods grew at Phantom Ranch where temperatures were in the 60s. Desert mesquite grew along the route to Roaring Springs. The 23-mile walk from the South Rim to the North Rim covers the same climatic and environmental changes encountered on a walk from the desert of Sonora, Mexico, to the alpine forests of Hudson Bay in Canada.

STARTING THE DESCENT

I didn`t know what to expect. I knew I could climb down, but could I make it back up? I had hiked once before through flat Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Florida where heat, boredom and sand dunes were the only challenges of a two- day 14-mile jaunt.

My greatest assets were a determination to make it, the hiker`s prayer, ``If you pick up my feet, Lord, I`ll put them down,`` and the incredible beauty of the surroundings.

It was cold and sunny the morning I began. I wore a T-shirt, turtleneck, sweater, shorts under long pants, windbreaker, wool hat and gloves. My pack weighed 20 pounds, camera equipment 3 pounds and 2 quarts of water weighed 4 pounds.

As the day progressed I stripped to turtleneck and shorts and switched to a white cotton hat. I was sweating, but the wind kept me cool. When my hat blew off, I would have let it go had another hiker not picked it up. ``Don`t try to grab anything in the wind,`` cautioned Margaret.

The trail is about 4 feet wide. I never felt I would fall. It was only on the rim looking down that I experienced acrophobia and a feeling that something beyond my control would lead me to the edge -- and over. On the trail I stayed close to the inside and waited uneasily for the mule caravan bringing tourists down the trail, even though signs say to stand quietly on the outside as they pass by. There was an alcove on the inside of the trail when I first spotted the mules and a rock to sit on. I waited.

The mule caravan guide looked and sounded like Ward Bond from the old television series Wagon Train.

THE TOUGHEST STRETCH

Since I brought food for the 1 1/2 days of the trip, my pack was heavy. The warm clothes, stripped and stuffed away, added weight as I descended. Three miles before Phantom Ranch I told a fellow hiker, ``I`m going to have a garage sale when I get to the bottom.``

It is this descent, especially with weight on your back, that is the hardest on the body, said a National Park Service ranger at Phantom Ranch.

President Theodore Roosevelt established The Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908. Eleven years later President Woodrow Wilson established Grand Canyon National Park. Today, the park is 1,892 square miles, twice its original size.

In the first mile and a half of my descent I took 72 photographs. This slowed me down and would soon deplete my supply of film. I stopped taking the ``I- should-take-that`` shots and concentrated only on the ``wows.`` From time to time I stowed the camera in my pack.

A sign at Yaki Point says the climb to Phantom takes three or four hours. It took me seven, but I was in no hurry. (Some people hike to the river and out in one day.)